Change of Pace
by DreamDisneyGurl
Summary: After three years of pining, Marinette knew that she could never get Adrien's attention. So, she intends to move on, and who better than the boy that became her best friend? Meanwhile, Adrien knew that he could never get his Lady's attention the way he wanted, so he accepted he and Ladybug are just friends/partners in crime and focused more on his friends. More inside !


**_Summary_** : After three years of pining, Marinette knew that she could never get Adrien's attention. So, she intends to move on, and who better than the boy that became her best friend? Meanwhile, Adrien knew that he could never get his _Lady's_ attention the way he wanted, so he accepted he and Ladybug are just friends/partners in crime and focused more on his friends...that is, until he was starting to notice Marinette a little more than just a friend.

 ** _Disclaimer_** : I do not own Miraculous: The Tale of Ladybug and Chat Noir. That is solely own by it's creator, Thomas Astruc.

* * *

"Wait, what? I-I don't think I understood you, girl,"

Surprise was an understatement for Alya to say the least.

Hearing that her best friend of forever was saying that she was gonna move on from the love of her life of three years, it was something out of the ordinary.

Almost as if it was April Fool's day joke.

But the Ladyblogger _knew_ that April had past (plus her best friend wouldn't joke about this). And with the holidays rolling in, and after that it would be their senior year and then move onto college to their future lives. Although Alya said that she supported any decision that Marinette made (as long as it wasn't crazy), she didn't expect that Marinette would say such a thing like that.

Speaking of the bluebell eyed girl with cute pigtails, she was standing in front of a bespectacled Alya, and nodded solemnly with a sigh, "Y-Yeah. I mean who are we kidding Alya? The more we grow up, the more that Adrien and I are further apart. After all, with his fangirls growing by the number and...there's _Lila_ as well," Marinette grunted as she was glancing to the classroom were the brunette was strutting towards a smiling Adrien, and rolled her eyes.

Yes, Lila was _still_ schooling here, even after three years. And was cruel to Marinette as ever. Heck, she bumped Chloe off as the _meanest girl_ in school, and that was saying something. But unlike Chloe, everyone liked Lila. Even with her lies, that only Adrien and Marinette knew. And she was relentless on hitting on Adrien a lot now. But of course, Adrien was just being polite and didn't take her advances to heart, or usually excused himself and rushed away.

Marinette was always feeling a little jealous and sad whenever she saw the two interacted.

"Girl, you just gonna give up? Just like that?!" Alya was waving her hands around frantically, trying to understand where her best friend was coming from, "The guy you said was _the one?!_ The guy that you wanted to get married to, have three kids with _and_ a hamster with and live happily ever after?"

"I was fifteen back then when I thought of that," Marinette reasoned as she was wringing her hands a bit with a weak smile, "But we all know that I can't even try anything romantic with the boy for three years. Plus, he only sees me as a good friend. He's said this a bunch of times too,"

"Yeah but..."

"Alya," The pigtailed girl looked up at her tall best friend with a look, "I just think...that I don't want to be stuck always watching him and being such a creeper. Plus, if he really did like me, don't you think he would've tried something or we would've noticed?"

Alya went to open her mouth, but closed it again. Despite that she was a _huge_ shipper of her best friend and the blond model, she knew that Adrien Agreste was the most oblivious boy in the whole of school...maybe even the whole of Paris. So it was understandable on how Marinette was feeling the way she was. But...it still made the Ladyblogger a little bit sad that her best friend wasn't even gonna _try_ to confess her feelings for the boy, even if she tried for three years...and it always ended up either akuma attacks happens or something (or someone) _always_ interrupted them.

Sighing, Alya rubbed her temple, "You sure you want to...move on?"

Marinette nodded her head, as she then smiled, "I think so..."

"This doesn't happen to be about Luka, does it?"

The blush on Marinette just answered everything to Alya and the glass eyed girl frowned a little.

Okay, so Luka Couffaine, Juleka's older brother by two year, wasn't that bad of a guy. In fact, he fit in really well with the rest of their friends, being so open and friendly despite his calm cool attitude. Despite being older, he had come to join Marinette and the rest of the group of friends a lot, and even Adrien was good friends with him as well. Just not as close as Juleka and Rose were. And then somehow, Luka had spent a lot more time with Marinette as well, almost in equal parts of being a best friend besides Alya. It _did_ tick of Alya at first of being almost replace, but of course Luka had to be the damn good guy and say that he could never dream of coming in between them, and even said that he thought that Alya was an amazing best friend for Marinette.

...Damn the boy's niceness that didn't match with his bad boy look. He was almost as sweet as Adrien.

...

...

...

...

...Okay, Alya was starting to see why Marinette would like to move on.

But the difference was that she _knew_ that Luka liked Marinette back. And it was sort of obvious the way he looked at her, or at the times he would often stutter a little in his speech sometimes whenever Marinette smiled sweetly up at him. Plus, the two had a lot in common, particularly for their love for Jagged Stone. The guitarist has even freaked out once Marinette introduced Jagged to him once when she was called again to design Jagged's new CD cover for his new album. Alya had heard Juleka saying to Rose that he had 'fallen for her all over again'.

' _So it seems our dear compass finally is pointing in the direction of the statue she wanted,_ ' Alya hummed with a thought then spoke with a grin, "So, you gonna ask him out then?"

Marinette was spluttering out now and turning redder than Ladybug, waving her hands around and laughing, "M-M-Me asking Luka out?! H-Haha, as if! I mean, we're just friends and all that ahahaah..."

As the bluebell eyed girl kept rambling, Alya was humming a little. Now Marinette was acting like herself...except the boy she was crushing on now wasn't Adrien, but Luka.

 _'Will this last though...?'_

"Hey girls,"

Speaking of the devil.

Luka was walking towards them, his guitar was slung behind him as he waved at them with a cool smile. Marinette turned to him and her eyes brightened, smiling happily and was giving her happy greeting back to him, asking about his classes and how his day was so far; which in turn had Luka talking with a fond smile about his eventful day. Ayla watched the exchange, lagging behind them as they talked and walked to the cafeteria, considering it was lunchtime.

' _Maybe a change of pace is good...?_ ' Alya thought as she watched the two, already mixed feeling about all this, ' _Well it's probably for the best. Not like Adrien likes Marinette that way anyways, right?_ '

* * *

"So what do you say, Adrien? You and me this weekend?" Lila was smiling coyly up at the blond, leaning closer to him as Adrien was leaning back in return with a nervous smile.

"A-ahaha, um, well, I dunno. My dad might book me into some modelling gigs this weekend," Adrien said with a chirp, wondering why the brunette was getting awfully close, and also finding it weird how she kept batting her eyes like that. Was there something in her eyes?

Before Lila could say anymore, she blinked as she had to step back when a fencing sword was between her and Adrien, and glanced to see the serious face of Kagami Tsurugi.

"You are invading Adrien-san's personal space," The Japanese girl spoke coolly with dark eyes, as Lila huffed a bit, flipping her hair back and walking away. Relaxing, Kagami turned to Adrien, who smiled thankfully.

"Er, thanks Kagami,"

The girl in red let herself give a small fond smile and nodded, that was only reserved to people who were close to her, in which case, was Adrien.

"I do not understand why you do not say you are not comfortable with her," Kagami spoke once she placed her sword away and Adrien got his bag, "You looked like a poor rabbit being hunted by a puma,"

 _More like a fox,_ Adrien thought but let a laugh escaped him, rubbing the back of his head, "Ah, y-you think so? Besides, it's not like Lila is doing any harm,"

"You are too kind, as always. Sometimes I wonder how far you can go with that naive attitude of yours,"

"Eh?" Adrien blinked in confusion, giving an unsure smile.

Kagami shook her head as the two were walking out the classroom and meeting up with Nino, who was leaning against the wall and listening to his music. The red cap wearing boy looked up and smiled, waving at the two.

"Hey guys," Nino chuckled as he looked amused for a moment, seeing how Kagami glanced over to a bunch of girls oogling at Adrien, and the Japanese girl was giving a look to them to scare them off, "Ready for lunch, bro...a-and bro-lette," He rubbed his head as Kagami tilted her head, but smiled a little as well.

Yes, even Nino was also someone that Kagami was comfortable with. His _Laissez-faire_ attitude was something she despised at first, but after spending time with him since the boy always came to watch her and Adrien fence during their club time, she had come to learn that the other wasn't just some airhead; but someone that was pretty smart in the street sense and was also pretty kind like Adrien, only except he could be scary when overprotective of his friend.

She remembered a talk she had with Nino Lahiffe.

 _Once Adrien excused himself to get changed after a long practice in fencing, Nino was approaching a distracted Kagami, his eyes narrowed._

 _"What's your endgame with my boy, Adrien?" Nino asked bluntly now, as Kagami was about to put her rapier away, but froze as she was sensing the other's aura, and narrowed her eyes._

 _"My...endgame?" She asked bluntly as she was then turning to face him, and was bringing her sword up in case he was wanting to attack...but was surprised he didn't move a muscle. Impressive._

 _"Like, are you trying to get with him? What? Money? Fame? What's your angle?" He approached closer as he stared down at her, since he was a head taller than her, "I just want to know, you've been always challenging him and wanting to spend time with him. I just wanna make sure what's your motive here..."_

 _Staring at him for a moment longer, she then spoke blunt and confused, "Of course I want to challenge him. After he had defeated me, I've trained long and hard to one day beat him and become number one again,"_

 _Nino just stared blankly at her, then after a minute he relaxed, chuckling a little as he rubbed his head, shaking his head, "Wow...that's all?"_

 _"Of course that's all, what else is there?" Kagami asked with a ticked expression, wondering why the other was laughing at her, "What is funny that I want to be the best?!"_

 _"I thought you were in love with him or something, like all the other girls around here. Well,_ some _at least," Nino hummed as he then was leaning back._

 _Kagami spluttered, then looked slightly uncomfortable for a moment and shook her head, "He is only an opponent. Nothing more, nothing less. Besides, I thought he would be in love with that Marinette girl from our class,"_

 _"Ah, so you've noticed too?" Nino smiled knowingly then sighed, "The problem is, the boy's oblivious. Just as much as you are I guess,"_

 _She ignored his last words and tilted her head, "So he does not know that he likes her? And she with him?"_

 _"I think so? Can't really tell, the guy is so nice to everyone, and wants to be friends with anyone that it's hard to say. But then again, he talks about he was in love with some girl outside our school and won't tell me who it is. Me! His best friend!" Nino sighed but then smiled a little and placed his hand out to her, "Sorry for accusing you of having bad intentions. Honestly, I thought you'd be like Chloe or Lila. But you're alright,"_

 _Kagami looked at the hand and then smiled as she then placed her sword away and shook his hand, "Likewise, Lahiffe-san,"_

 _"Just Nino is fine dudette,"_

And that was three years ago. By then Kagami had joined the boys in this strange yet friendly sort of trio and has been hanging with them since. She learnt a lot of their quirks and their friendship, at the same time, she had opened up to them little by little once she got comfortable and used to their antics. She even found out stuff about them personally, about Adrien's home life and his busy father, to Nino's love of music and how he wants to be a DJ as a career choice.

She looked to them like brothers. Family.

One she was _truly_ protective of.

Especially when many girls had always tried to crowd around Adrien. Particularly that Lila girl.

Kagami never really liked her. Something about her made Kagami on edge. And Nino agreed with her. In fact, it would only seem that herself and Nino could see that the lying cunning young woman wasn't who she appeared to be, and weren't ones falling for her pretty words and 'accomplishments'. Adrien scolded the two when they voiced their concern, saying that Lila 'has it rough' and to just take it easy on her. Thus why they were always around whenever Lila approached Adrien, afraid that somehow the young blond model would be pulled into something and Lila would easily manipulate him because of his soft heart.

Kagami and Nino both swore they wouldn't let anyone hurt their 'precious cinnamon roll', as Nino dubbed him.

"Hey look! It's Marinette and the rest," Adrien spoke up as he saw that Marinette, Luka and Alya were making their way to the cafeteria, "Let's go after them,"

With the excited blond rushing away, Nino went after him, excited to talk with his girlfriend of three years. Kagami of course just patiently walked behind the two boys, smiling a little as she saw Marinette...wait...

The Japanese girl tilted her head as she saw that Marinette was giving a wary smile over to Adrien, not her usual blushing and stuttering and just saying Adrien's name like a lovestruck fool. No, she was calm, and had a face of melancholy as she just greeted Adrien and continued to talk with Alya and Nino as Luka and Adrien nodded to each other in greeting.

Something was wrong, Kagami could feel it.

She then blinked as she felt a breeze past by her and looked up at the open ceiling of the center of the school where the basketball court was, and softened, noticing the clouds were rolling in, signalling it was gonna rain soon.

' _Things are changing...'_

* * *

 _ **A/n:** _The beginning of something...drama filled? But ah, this is just the introduction. Can you actually believe I started this story like months ago? -folds arms- Wow, I have good prediction skills about the Lila thing (has watched Season 3 so yeah). At any case, what do you think? Good? Bad? Ugly? -shot- ANYWAYS, yeah, hope you enjoy and hope to write more soon! Thanks for reading everybody. If ya'll have questions or comments, reviews are appreciated! :D


End file.
